Love of the Peach
by Kindled Chime
Summary: For the girl that finally took the time to open her eyes.


_Er... yeah, whatever. I don't own Naruto._

**Peach**

Sakura sighed loudly and pounded on the scarred and cracked door, rapidly loosing any hope that anything she did would garner a response from the ninja within. Groaning loudly she rolled her eyes and slumped forward leaning her forehead against the cool wood.

_'Dammit Naruto... How could you be late today?'_ Usually her personal inner demon would have been raging and ranting, ordering her to rip the blond a new set of everything. On this occasion it was decidedly silent though. Perhaps because it was disappointed with the young man as well. Sakura turned and leant so that her back was pressed up against the door, ignoring the creak it gave in complaint at the pressure. She had waited three hours at the training ground, certain that he would show up albeit late. He had never stood her up before. Normally it was something she took for granted. His devotion to her as a child had pretty much ensured that through hell or high waters he would be on time for a meeting with her. Though it wasn't as if she had ever had any meetings with him to test out that theory. And now, the one time she had found a break in her schedule and arranged to meet up with Naruto for a morning spar and he hadn't showed. And rather than annoying or irritating her, she found that it hurt.

After his return from his two and a half year trip he had done everything possible to shatter her impressions of him. She had fully expected him to come back a little stronger than he had left, perhaps with a few more perverted/ridiculous jutsu under his belt. The only time she had ever seen him train was when Kakashi-sensei had taught them the tree walking exercise and her admiration for Sasuke had driven out any thought of Naruto's equal accomplishment. With that in mind she had no idea how much effort he would put into his training. For him to come back so strong... it scared her a little. He was no genius, that much was obvious. It had to be sheer hard work, the same as with Rock Lee. He knew the Rasengan, summoned creatures on a scale with the Kyubi and had tamed part of the demon foxes chakra.

An image of Naruto, covered in blood and effortlessly bating Orochimaru through a forest while four dark tails swirled behind him flashed before her eyes. He had become stronger... so much stronger - was training himself to be a weapon, to use what made him so hated by the people he protected... and all because she asked him to help her bring back her childhood crush. It was unbearable. For him to do that to himself for her sake. It hurt her as much as Sasuke leaving once had.

Since that time her image of the young, mostly orange genin had been shattered and were struggling to recover themselves into a new whole. She admired him, not just for his strength, but for his heart. She caught glimpses of him arguing with Jiraiya loudly, grinning at a fuming Tsunade, laughing with the old man and his daughter at Ichiraku, playing with Konohamaru and his friends and she couldn't help but wonder how she hadn't seen this Naruto before. Where was the ramen eating idiot that plagued her when they were young? It hurt to think that she didn't know if he had changed or if she had just never seen him for what he was.

She shifted against the door, absently trying to find a more comfortable position. The door creaked a little louder, but received no more attention for its efforts. His devotion to her hurt, because she did almost nothing to justify it. And now she couldn't stop wondering if his devotion was slipping away. She knew with a certainty that would brook no argument that he would have never missed an appointment with her before he left Konoha, even if the armies of Sound, Cloud and Mist had been camping in front of his door. For him to miss a meeting with her now... how could she not wonder if her importance in his eyes had not fallen? Just a little? And for some reason it pained her to think that. It seemed that years of having someone quietly worshiping you took its toll even if you didn't notice at the time. Now her feelings were conflicted. The love she had held for Sasuke, if it could even be called that, had guttered like a candle flame with no more fuel during those two and a half years. That left her heart free and open to any takers, but she found herself more and more receptive to the advances of her remaining teammate. Advances that didn't seem to be coming. Naruto smiled at her near constantly, called her Sakura-chan and generally acted the same way he always had - but he never gave any sign of pushing his advantages that way she expected, the way she _wanted_ him to. Had he really given up? Or just lost interest? Two and a half years was a long time to not see someone and he must have met so many people on his travels. Maybe one of those people was a young girl with pink hair? Or blonde or black or green or blue or white or red? One that actually listened to him and paid attention to him that didn't involve disparaging words and a fist? She slumped some more, not paying any attention to the creak that had gotten both louder and longer, much to her detriment, as the door finally gave up it's duties and fell free of it's hinges, depositing the young woman onto her back in Naruto's doorway with a crash. The door's ghost ascended to heaven and bid its long suffering mortal body farewell, or at least as best it could with no limbs, ectoplasmic or otherwise.

Sakura groaned at the fall and resultant blow to her head, then sneezed immediately at the cloud of dust the broken door had thrown into the air. Sitting up and muttering 'itai' under her breathe she stiffened suddenly. She was on Naruto's floor. On his floor with the remains of his door. The remains of his door that could be debatably be blamed on her in some admittedly fairly accurate manner or another. She sprang to her feet, her eyes darting around in panic. After a few seconds of silence she hesitantly relaxed and patted the dust of her skirt and out of her rosy hair. This done she scanned the apartment, finding it to be an average home, though a little on the massy side. Either he had cleaned recently or Kakashi had exaggerated when he told her horror stories of the boys house keeping skills. Curiosity aroused she crept forward, abandoning ninja stealth for a comical tip-toe creep without realising it. This was the first time she had seen where Naruto lived and despite her misgivings she wanted to see more. The room seemed sparsely furnished and a bit dingy, in her opinion. The light bulb was broken and the wires hung limply from the fixture. A little light shone through the shuttered window, displaying the shimmering dust motes that hung in the air. Empty ramen cups littered the counter, sending a shudder up her spine.

_'Is that all he eats?'_

The girl was about to move deeper into the appartment when a soft snort and rustle of blankets drew her attention to the bed in the corner of the room. A bed that seemed to have an occupant. Against her better judgement as well as her inner self that was screaming out in agitation once more she crept forward and leaned over the blanketed bundle. Naruto lay on his back, arms splayed across the bed and a line of drool trailing from his mouth down his whiskered cheek. At some point during the night he had half shed his blankets and his shirt had risen up to his chest, showing his toned stomach which was presently free of the seal to Sakura's relief. Next to the bed was a nightstand with a broken alarm clock on it, an imprint of a fist buckling the metal. Sakura's eyebrow twitched.

_'I went through that angst because the idiot punched his alarm clock?'_ She shook her head. Her points were still just as valid and she had no way of knowing how long the clock had been broken. The pink haired kunoichi turned her attention back to the slumbering youth, finding her eyes drifting to the clearly defined muscles on his chest, resulting in a soft blush. He shifted again turning away from he a little, leaving her to follow his movement unconsciously. Her new position left her leaning over the bed with part of his body under her. Her blush intensified at the thought of him waking up and finding her like this, but she didn't move away. His eyes were squinted shut, making him look like a fox - an image that she didn't find particularly disturbing. He shifted again slightly, before spinning in place and sending an arm out like a tentacle latching onto the girl and dragging her onto the bed, before he snuggled up against her like a giant teddy bear. The girl gave a quick squeak as she fell and soon found herself staring at the ceiling, her head comfortably pressed into Naruto's chest. Green eyes blinked. And again. Once more. She could feel his breathe on her hair and figured that her blush was probably lighting the entire room with its intensity. Inner Sakura was silent. And also slumped on the ground drooling quietly, mumbling things about orange cuties.

Before the girl could think a nose pressed itself into her hair.

"Mmmm. Sakura-chan... smells like peaches..." Naruto mumbled, still lost in the embrace of sleep. Her eye twitched. If he even thought of trying to eat her hair in his sleep she would maim him heavily. "Pretty Sakura-chan..." Blushes shouldn't be radioactive, as a rule. After a few more minutes Naruto rolled over again, freeing the girl from his grip. After a few seconds Sakura sat up, somewhat disappointed he had let go. She had been comfortable. The young girl stared at his face for a few seconds and smiled gently. Then she tip-toed back to the entrance to his home and painstakingly lifted his door into position again... Before sending it smashing into the floor with as much strength and sound as possible. Shattered bits of wood fell into the room, under the watchful keyhole of an indignant door shaped ghost and startling the blond fox-boy into wakefulness.

"Wah! Attack!" Sakura stomped into the room, cracking floorboards with her footfalls and stood at the end of the bed, a picture of indignant female fury. Naruto cowered pulling the blankets up to his chin in an effort at shielding himself.

**"You were late."** Her voice sounded like death. Naruto continued to cower, but had started to mumble prayers to any god interested enough to listen as he did so. "You were late Naruto. I don't like being kept waiting. Especially not for three hours. So now..." She grinned and cracked her knuckles. Naruto began to cry silently. "Now... you have to pay for the date you're going to take me on right now. You have five minutes to get dressed. And if you even suggest going for ramen I will hurt you so badly. Understood?" Naruto did tried to shake his head and nod at the same time, wanting to cover all the bases in case she brought it up again later. "Good enough. Five minutes." With that she turned on her heel and stalked out the empty, now doorless, portal. Once outside she leant against the wall and grinned to herself.

Five minutes later a slightly disheveled Naruto emerged, tying his forehead protector in place with its long black bandana. Nodding to him she fell into step with him, watching him out of the corner of her eye as he stared at her with a puzzled face, his eyes closed and as fox-like as ever. She decided she didn't ever want him to stop watching her. Beaming she grabbed his hand and pulled him forward.

"C'mon. You've got some apologising to do... Naruto-kun."

* * *

_Yeah...stuff._


End file.
